The Newborn Sling

I have mentioned having baby Lila in a sling in a past blog post and a few of you have asked what kind of sling I use. If you didn't ask, you might not be interested at all in this post.

Anyway...this is the essential newborn sling. It is a piece of knit, stretchy fabric, 18 feet long and about 18 inches wide. I used one with Finn, as well, and it is awesome. Some people will use this sling for many months. There are lots of ways you can position your baby and even up to toddler. For me I really only used it for a couple of months, during the time that the baby wants to be swaddled a lot, then I prefer a back pack if I need to have my hands free and carry them at the same time. As you know, babies typically love to be swaddled and held. Lila wants to be against my chest most of the day and is pretty much always happy if she is snuggled against me. Finn was the same. So, this sling is really great! My cute niece, Jessica, wanted to give one to a friend when Finn was a baby so I had her come over to model the instructions. They are pretty self-explanatory.

The first step is to find the middle of the fabric. I keep telling myself I'm going to sew a little something at the middle to mark that point, but I keep forgetting to do that.

Anyway, position the middle of the fabric across your middle like this:
Take it around your back, cross it, and bring the ends up over your shoulders:

Take your two ends (or straps) down and tuck them under the front "belt" portion of the sling:

Cross them and tie them around your back:


Now you are done tying the sling. Next is to put the baby in. There are several ways to do this, but this is best for a newborn:

Insert baby (haha) into sling by positioning head in one side of sling...

Then legs and rest of body in the other side of sling and adjust baby until s/he's comfortable.
Next, lift up the front belt portion of sling over baby to keep her secure.

There you go!

Happy as can be!
You can also position baby in more of a sitting position.

Oh, and if you have too much stress on your neck, you can adjust the "straps" to be more spread out like this:Yesterday I wore baby in the sling while we went for a walk (pushed Finn in jog stroller), had a feeding (I sat in the backyard and got some sun on my legs while she ate and Finn jumped on the trampoline), folded 3 loads of laundry, did a load of dishes, and read a story to Finn. Oh, and she's in the sling right now while I blog. Pretty handy, huh?